For Christmas, Dan’s sister gave us a membership to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I’ve been a member of many visual arts organizations in the past (ArtSpace New Haven, Southern Exposure, Wadsworth Atheneum, Real Art Ways, and on and on) but for whatever reason this is the first one that has resulted in participation as I imagine it’s more or less intended. The membership provides us with the ability to spontaneously drop in, look around, enjoy an exhibition without feeling the need to take in the whole building. And, we get to skip the line, which is a nice perk on a rainy Sunday. I’m lovin’ it.

Today, we went to the Luc Tuymans exhibition, which Dan blogged about here.

In addition to the shows, I am also enjoying SFMOMA’s new lineup of bloggers, er, columnists. They just got started and already there’s an interesting post by Renny Pritkin about artists who’ve left town (and those who have stayed). I discovered Pritkin’s Prescription For A Healthy Art Scene on the Open Space blog shortly after moving to San Francisco last year, and it was posted on my office wall for quite a while. Glad to see that he is now an official poster, creating an interactive online space for dialogue.

Speaking of dialogue, there was quite the turnout for SOMArts’s Saturday afternoon talk about politics and printmaking. Sixty-five people showed up to see the work of more than 30 Bay Area artists represented in the exhibition, and to hear the differing opinions of Art Hazelwood, Robert Flynn Johnson, Steve Lopez and Don Farnsworth. Somehow, there is a connection to be made in the tremendous (and growing) local turnout at SOMArts shows, and the response by artists and curators on Pritkin’s blog who are seeking the kind of business, finance and critical rigor that will sustain them here. The lack of posts on my own blog is due partly to a desire not to make this site an annex to my work space … but these artists’ needs, and how to support them with our limited resources, are very much on my mind.

So, over at SOMArts we’ve been doing some advocacy in the face of budget cuts to the cultural centers. We’ve been writing grants. And we have been working damn hard.

And right now, I wish there was another day to this weekend! This one was good, and too short. Thanks San Francisco, for living up to expectations once again.